Tuesday, April 2, 2013

In a bombshell confession, the former French Budget Minister, Jerome Cahuzac, has admitted that he had lied repeatedly to the President, parliament and public and had cheated on his taxes for 20 years.

Mr Cahuzac's admission he had €600,000 in an illegal offshore bank account dealt a devastating blow to a Socialist president and government already facing public rage over tax rises, cuts and high unemployment.

President François Hollande said tonight that Mr Cahuzac had committed an "unpardonable moral fault" by lying for four months to the Elysée Palace and the National Assembly. However, in a further, deep embarrassment for the President, the investigative newspaper, Le Canard Enchainé will report today that Mr Hollande saw evidence pointing to Mr Cahuzac's possible guilt as long ago as December.

More than 100 Conservative MPs challenged David Cameron yesterday to accelerate his promise to hold a referendum on loosening Britain's ties with the European Union.

The Prime Minister is facing an ominous new rebellion less than three months after winning backbench plaudits for his pledge to hold a referendum on the UK's membership if he wins the next general election in 2015. Eurosceptic MPs are now pressing him to bring in legislation before the election to pave the way to the vote on the EU.

A letter calling on him to support the move and requesting a meeting was delivered to Downing Street by the Basildon and Billericay MP, John Baron. He said: "It is a strongly worded letter but it is congratulatory of the Prime Minister. The referendum promise had to be credible and believable

The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group that has opposed the treaty from the start, said it was a sad day for the United States, which joined the vast majority of U.N. member states by voting for the pact.

Iran, Syria and North Korea cast the sole votes against the treaty. The same three states last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the pact.

The US described the prospect of North Korea restarting a mothballed atomic reactor as "extremely alarming" on Tuesday.

North Korea said it would reactivate all facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to ease its electricity shortage and strengthen its nuclear capability. The reactor was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled.

The move came a day after Pyongyang announced a "new strategic line" focusing on its nuclear programme and economy.

Seven people in West Virginia have been diagnosed with meningitis related to recalled vials of a steroid made at a Massachusetts compounding center, according to the state Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services.

No one in West Virginia has died from the infection, according to the state.

All of the cases have been patients treated at the Pars Interventional Pain and Wellness Center. The Parkersburg clinic is the only West Virginia clinic of the 75 facilities in 23 states to have received the contaminated injections, according to the state.

Nationwide, there have been 730 reported cases of fungal meningitis including 51 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The infection is not contagious.

A King County man was shot while sleeping in his bed 16 times by local police who invaded the house. Police declared they “felt threatened” by the man who was not the subject of a warrant or investigation. The Department of Corrections and the Kings County Sheriff’s office saw no problem with the random shooting stating it was in compliance with the law. One of the deputies involved in the shootings Detective Aaron Thompson received sustained violations for abuse of authority and poor performance. The man who was shot has no criminal record and has lost his ability to make a living due to his injuries. Apparently the officers were serving an arrest warrant on someone other than the actual victim and they did not ask the owner of the house if there were any weapons present or if a third-party resided there. The detectives involved did not work with other detectives who were present or contact a supervisor before attempting to serve the warrant that ended in the tragic shooting.

Thumbing its nose again at the international community, North Korea announced Tuesday that it would restart a nuclear reactor that was closed in 2007 under a six-nation disarmament agreement.

Although Pyongyang claimed in the past that the reactor's purpose was to generate electricity, this time the regime declared outright it would also be "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quantity and in quality."

"I have to say this is one of the most dangerous moments since 1953," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University, referring to the end of the Korean War.

Israeli planes carried out bombing sorties over the Gaza Strip late Tuesday night, responding to rocket attacks out of the Palestinian enclave earlier in the day.

The air force bombing was the first Israeli attack on Gaza since an informal cease-fire was signed between Jerusalem and the Strip’s Hamas rulers in November following an eight-day mini-war to stem rocket fire dubbed Pillar of Defense.

Men armed with pistols, knives and steel pipes stormed into three Baghdad newspaper offices, beating employees and smashing computers after publication of an article about a Shi'ite Muslim cleric, police and editors said on Tuesday.

Monday's attacks illustrated the stubborn influence of hardline Islamist militias in Iraq, where Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents often imposed their own fundamentalist vision on the streets during the height of sectarian war a few years ago.

"A group of men armed with steel pipes and knives attacked three newspaper offices in Baghdad. Some of the employees were wounded and we have arrested two of the assailants," a police source said.

he White House unveiled details on Tuesday of a new initiative to study the human brain with the goal of creating effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other disorders.

Called the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the program aims to help researchers see how brain cells and neural circuits interact through technology that produces "dynamic pictures" of the brain.

It is to be funded with $100 million from President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget. The White House is slated to release Obama's budget next week.

On the evening of the last Wednesday in March, the directors of Laiki bank, the second largest in Cyprus, gathered in their sixth floor board room for the last time.

With the portraits of chairmen past staring down at them, they all resigned, something that had become inevitable earlier in the week when each director received a letter from the Central Bank of Cyprus telling them a special administrator had been appointed to run their bank and the board was suspended.

Six New York politicians were arrested for their alleged role in a bribery scandal in which a prominent Democrat paid top Republicans for permission to run on their ticket in the city's upcoming mayoral race, prosecutors said.

Authorities described the scheme - potentially one of the biggest political scandals to hit New York in years - as an attempt to game the city's first wide-open mayoral election in more than a decade. New York will choose a new mayor in November, before Michael Bloomberg's third term wraps up at the end of the year.

Online message boards in Japan began buzzing this afternoon after photos surfaced depicting conflicts between residents in Jiangxi Province, China, and the authorities charged with removing them. With demolition of the buildings already in progress, men and woman can be seen standing their ground on rooftops, some even defending themselves with long poles, in scenes that resemble riots.

Forced eviction is not uncommon in China. In the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an estimated 1.5 million people’s homes were demolished for the sake of construction and beautification, with frequent claims that as well as being poorly compensated by the government, many residents were forced to take new homes that were far removed from their homeland or place of occupation.

But even with the Olympic Games long since past, it seems that authorities in China continue to demolish buildings in the name of progress, removing former residents against their will. In the following photos we see residents in Southeast China’s Nanchang City struggling with wrecking crews as buildings are torn down alongside a new road. Quite what the pictured residents’ individual circumstances are is uncertain, but it is clear that many are far from happy to leave.

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday signed off on a sweeping, first-of-its-kind treaty to regulate the international arms trade, brushing aside worries from U.S. gun rights advocates that the pact could lead to a national firearms registry and disrupt the American gun market.

The long-debated U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires countries to regulate and control the export of weaponry such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft and attack helicopters, as well as parts and ammunition for such weapons. It also provides that signatories will not violate arms embargoes, international treaties regarding illicit trafficking, or sell weaponry to a countries for genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.

With the Obama administration supporting the final treaty draft, the General Assembly vote was 154 to 3, with 23 abstentions.

Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade and could fuel growing concern among many doctors that the A.D.H.D. diagnosis and its medication are overused in American children.

The figures showed that an estimated 6.4 million children ages 4 through 17 had received an A.D.H.D. diagnosis at some point in their lives, a 16 percent increase since 2007 and a 53 percent rise in the past decade. About two-thirds of those with a current diagnosis receive prescriptions for stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall, which can drastically improve the lives of those with A.D.H.D. but can also lead to addiction, anxiety and occasionally psychosis.

Matt's thoughts:
I found his part on propaganda most interesting. The TV shows, the movies, etc, all train people to think that such events are normal and should be expected. Even reading the Youtube comments on that video, you'll see people saying things like, "Hey, it was just a fun way to have an exercise," as if completely oblivious to the possibilities of what's truly happening.

Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris quit on Tuesday after concluding talks with foreign lenders on a bailout that forced the island to slap unprecedented losses on bank depositors in return for aid.

The news came after Cyprus announced a partial relaxation of currency controls, raising the ceiling for financial transactions that do not require central bank approval, but keeping most other restrictions in place.

Sarris, who was dispatched to Moscow last month but returned empty-handed as Cyprus sought Russian aid after rejecting a European bank levy proposal, said his main goal of agreeing a deal with lenders had been accomplished.

A day after Pyongyang declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea, the politburo of the isolated regime defied the latest round of international sanctions by setting a twin strategy for the year of "carrying out economic development and building nuclear armed forces simultaneously".

The official Korean Central News Agency pronounced that nuclear weapons "can never be abandoned as long as imperialists and nuclear weapons exist on earth".

It added that it would not negotiate over its atomic programme, a "treasure" and not a "political bargaining chip" to be abandonned for any amount of aid.

An internationally renowned artist has been convicted of sex offences against children.

A jury at Truro crown court found Graham Ovenden, 70, guilty of four charges of indecency with a child.

On the direction of Judge Graham Cottle, the jury cleared the pensioner, a former pupil under Sir Peter Blake and who has had work exhibited in galleries across the globe, of three charges of indecent assault.

Authorities in Minnesota suspect that a tragic mother killed herself and her two young children after her veteran husband left her over a week ago. Police in Zimmerman, discovered the bodies of Stephanie Shields, 35, seven-year-old Nolan Shields and six-year-old Josephine Shields (pictured) on Sunday morning and said that no suspects are being sought.

EU Justice Scoreboard: European Commission broadens the scope of its analysis of Member States' justice systems

The European Commission has today unveiled a new comparative tool to promote effective justice systems in the European Union and thereby reinforce economic growth. The ‘European Justice Scoreboard’ will provide objective, reliable and comparable data on the functioning of the justice systems in the EU’s 27 Member States. Improving the quality, independence and efficiency of judicial systems already forms part of the EU’s economic policy coordination process under the European Semester, which is aimed at laying the foundations for a return to growth and job creation.

“The attractiveness of a country as a place to invest and do business is undoubtedly boosted by having an independent and efficient judicial system,” said Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner. “That is why predictable, timely and enforceable legal decisions are important and why national judicial reforms became an important structural component of the EU’s economic strategy. The new European Justice Scoreboard will act as an early warning system and will help the EU and the Member States in our efforts to achieve more effective justice at the service of our citizens and businesses.”

ReutersAnti-bailout protesters hold a banner and a Cypriot flag in capital city Nicosia.

SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — With no other source of aid available and the European Central Bank threatening withdrawal of emergency funding, Cyprus faced default and rapid economic collapse.

After balking at the original, controversial bailout provision that required ordinary depositors to pay a “tax” or “solidarity levy” on Cypriot bank deposits, Cyprus struck an amended deal early Monday with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund — collectively known as the troika.

The new measure staves off the risk of immediate collapse and the threat of Cyprus’s having to abandon the euro. But the plan doesn’t solve Cyprus’s problem. Or the euro zone’s.

The Cypriot bank-restructuring plan may not raise sufficient funds. It will encourage deposit flight, compounding the problems. As with Greece, there is a risk that Cyprus will need additional assistance, entailing further write-offs of depositors’ funds. And, as with Greece, privatization proceeds and the revenue from increased taxes may not reach targeted levels.

Germany, the European Commission and Greece have signed a joint declaration of intent to reform and expand the Greek renewable energy sector.

All parties concerned aim to help Greece to profit both from the recent fall in technology costs, especially in the PV sector, and from Germany and the EU's experience in the renewable energy sector, thus making the country fitter to address the challenges of renewable energy expansion.

Although Greece has far more solar radiation than Germany, its support costs for PV are significantly higher, which the Greek government last year proposed on cutting.

In November 2012, the Greek Parliament passed an austerity package which included a tax on existing solar power plants.

Europe's financial crisis is costing lives, with suicides and infectious diseases on the rise, yet politicians are not addressing the problem, health experts said on Wednesday.

Deep budget cuts and growing unemployment are tipping more people into depression, and falling incomes mean fewer people can see their doctors or afford to buy medicines.

The result has been a reversal since 2007 of a long-term decline in suicide rates, coupled with worrying outbreaks of diseases including HIV - and even malaria - in Greece, according to an major analysis of European health in The Lancet journal.

Recently, human infection with the H7N9 avian
influenza virus was discovered for the first time.
Three people from Shangahi City and Anhui Province
were infected.
Two of them died, and one is in critical condition.

So far, the source of this illness is unknown.
Human to human transmission cannot be ruled out.
Many people in Mainland China are panicking and protesting
against the government's reluctance to report the cases.
Some experts question whether dead pigs drifting on the
Huangpu River might be related the outbreak of the bird flu.

On March 31st the Mainland Health Committee reported that
three people were infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus.
They were both male, 87 and 27 years of age.
They were infected on February 19th and February 27th.
One died on March 4th and the other on March 10th.
A female patient, 35, from Anhui Province was infected
on March 9th. She is in critical condition.

A police officer is to press ahead with legal action against a petrol station owner after she tripped on a kerb while attending a suspected break-in, despite her father saying she planned to drop it.

A spokesman for the Police Federation, which is funding PC Kelly Jones's legal costs, said she planned to continue the claim against the owner of Nuns' Bridges filling station in Thetford, Norfolk, even though her father, Danny Harle, said she would drop it after being upset at the strong reaction it had prompted.

Harle, 58, told the Daily Mirror she felt she had been persecuted. He added: "All she did was follow standard police procedure. There was never any mention of figures. She was expecting a couple of grand, not £500,000.

A federal judge on Monday approved the city of Stockton's petition for bankruptcy in a case that sets the stage for a lengthy battle between bondholders and the California pension system.

In a case being studied by other cash-strapped American cities including Detroit, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Klein's decision was a setback for bondholders and insurers who had resisted the California city's bankruptcy filing. Stockton is the largest U.S. city ever to file for bankruptcy.

The judge also signaled that the California Public Employees Retirement System's position in the case was not above review. Stockton, a city of 300,000, has so far not reduced pension payments to retired city workers, although it has eliminated retiree healthcare benefits.